Michelle on Time Management May (or How I Prevent Myself from Shooting Myself in the Face)

It's Time Management May - hooray! And boo. But "hooray" & "May" rhyme, so I made sure that my video focused on what I'm doing now that helps me manage my schedule, commitments & projects without shooting myself in the face.

And here are the tools I mention in the video:

• Moleskine Colour (yes, with a "u"!) a Month Daily Planner (this links goes to the 2011 set - I couldn't find the 2010 one!)
• Stretch Clock
• If you don't know when you're most productive, download Charlie Gilkey's free productivity heat map (the other free planners rock, too)
• Totally off the subject (but mentioned in the video & so worth pimping out), here's where you can win a $710 Spruce Up Yo' Resume package that I mentioned on my video

Now here's the video so you know what the heck I'm referencing above. And yes, I'm wearing a custom Team Awesome baseball tee, but win the award for worst freeze frame face. They cancel each other out.

Comments

[Hayley]

I loved this video. And I completely relate to what you mean about loving and hating time management at the same time.

You've given me a new perspective on hourly slots in a daily planner. I'd previously ruled them out because I thought they were too structured for me, but the way you described using them, I feel could work for me.

The mindfulness alarm is something I thought of, not knowing anyone else did anything similar, but I thought it was a bit obscure, plus my usual alarm is really annoying and loud. But I googled 'mindfulness alarm' and there's software for it. Awesome.

Thanks for the great ideas.

[Michelle | When I Grow Up Coach]

Thanks, Hayley! So glad that you found the video helpful & you can see the unstructure in the structure (if that makes sense).

And I had no idea that there was a real mindfulness alarm! Coolness.

[Cass]

I really loved this video. I really like how you give yourself some flexibility about what "feels" right for you to do each day....I tend to be too rigid in this department and then everything suffers.

[linda]

Wow, time management is such a big issue...I think the internet allows us to go off track a lot of the times as well...wander off into internet wonderland, right? I heard before people saying it's not social networking it's social NOT-working! Hilarious...but oh so cruelly true at the same time. I agree that we have to find what works for us...every person is different. What I think is universal though, is going in small chunks...it's easier to knock things off piece by piece!

[tiffany1837jewelry]

I agree that we have to find what works for us...every person is different.

[deanna]

I love those little notebooks. I prefer paper when keeping track of what I need to do. I've been keeping a little Field Notes notebook in my purse and I've been using it this year to keep track of non-time specific things I want to do and little inspirations too. Your ideas are making me think I need to expand that.

Thank you, as always, Michelle!

[Angelique]

Love StretchClock and really want to know more about that guy in the tie doing all the stretches. It's such a fun alternative to the typical completely at ease yoga girl!

I keep a binder (lime green, fun!) with my own homemade weekly sheets divided hourly and dividing each hour into 15-minute chunks (obviously, I didn't know about those Moleskine books!). At the beginning of the week, I add in any hard appointments a la Michelle and, at the beginning of the day, I ID my most important tasks. Then, throughout the day, I track my productivity on the weekly sheet and use a master to-do list for what I'm working on.

I'm toying with the idea of tracking my activities by color so I can see more easily, at week's end, where my energy is going (client work, studio time, internet, family, etc). Overall, my system is a homebrew mixture of many existing systems (Getting Things Done, Zen To Done, Autofocus); I think one of my strengths is really not treating any one system as holy--I just do what works for me and benefit from the bits and pieces of these systems, vs forcing myself to fit into those predefined boxes.

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